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DR. BERG'S ANSWER TO THE LECTURE OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES 
ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 



LECTURE; 



SXUViiUED IN THB 



MUSICAL FUND HALL, 

ON TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 26, ]850, 
IN ANSWER TO ARCHBISHOP HU&HES ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM; 

BY THE 

EEV. JOSEPH F/BERG, D.D., 

PASTOR OF THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH, RACE STREET. 



REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR FOR PUBLICATION. 



i PHILADELPHIA: 
T. B. PETERSON, No. 98 CHESTNUT STREET, 

ONE DOOR ABOVE THIRD. 



mSQt AND BAIKP, FBHTTEBS. 



'^ , 



r/ 



,• 






A REPLY TO BISHOP HTTGHES. 



We are pleased to learn from the following correspondence, that the Rev. 
Dr. Berg has been solicited to answer the recent lecture of Bishop Hughes, 
on " the Decline of Protestantism," and will accede to the request at a very 
early day. From our talented townsman we shall expect a full and tri- 
umphant refutation of the fallacies, sophistries, and misrepresentations of 
the Eomish priest, 

Philadelphia, Nov. 18, 1850. 

Bev. J. F. Berg, D.D. — Dear Sir: — Believing that the public mind ought 
to be disabused of the erroneous impressions which the recent lecture of 
Bishop Hughes of New York is adapted to convey in relation to the alleged 
" Decline of Protestantism," and knowing that your reading has made you 
familiar with this whole subject, we would respectfully suggest the pro- 
priety of your giving a public lecture on this subject at the Chinese 
Museum, or some other suitable place, and hereby respectfully request you 
to take this subject into consideration. 

(Signed,) 



Rev. J. Lansing Burrows, 
" David Malin, 
" John B. Dales, 
" John Chambers, 
" J.T.Ward, 
" A. A. Willits, 

Peter A. Browne, Esq. 

Thomas Wattson, 

A. J. Dumont, 

Wilfred Hall, 



Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, D.D. 
" John Mc Dowell, D.D. 
" Charles D. Cooper, 
" John B. Hagany, 
" J. H. Kennard, 

Samuel Ash mead, 

Aaron A. Burtis, 

C. Collins, Jr. 

S. Sherrerd, 
And others. 



To Rev. J. Lansing Burrows, Rev. Drs. McDowell and Ely, and other 
clergymen, and Messrs. P. A. Browne, Thomas Wattson, and others : 

Bespected Friends — So soon as the requisite arrangements can be made by 
the committee of gentlemen who have interested themselves in the matter 
to which your note of the 18th inst. relates, it will afford me pleasure to 
avail myself of the opportunity to show cause why those who are not 
ashamed of their Protestant profession, may reasonably demur to the strange 
assumptions of the gentleman who styles himself " The Most Rev. John 
Hughes, D. D., Archbishop of New York." Meanwhile, with due appre- 
ciation of your kindness, 

I am, yours truly, J. F. BERG. 

PMada. 21si Nov, 1850. 



REV. DR. BERG'S ADDRESS. 



TREMENDOUS ATJDIENCE AT THE MUSICAL FUND HALL. 



One of the largest meetings that we ever saw 
in the Musical Fund Hall, was assembled there 
on Tuesday evening, November 26, notwith- 
standing the inclemency of the weather, on the 
occasion of the Address by the Rev. Joseph F. 
Bekg, Pastor of the German Reformed Church, 
in answer to the Lecture of Bishop Hughes, of 
New York. At an early hour the streets in the 
vicinity of the spacious and beautiful Hall were 
alive with ladies and gentlemen, wending their 
way to the Saloon. In a short time every place 
within the walls was occupied, and finally some 
of the audience found their way to the platform, 
and soon this place was filled ; thus presenting 
to the eye of the beholder a densely packed and 
tremendous meeting of ladies and gentlemen. 
The front portion of the platform was reserved 



for the Eev. Clergy, and there was a full repre- 
sentation from every Protestant denomination 
in Philadelphia. 

The Address, which we take pleasure in lay- 
ing before the public, was listened to with 
marked attention ; it was received with rounds 
of applause and other manifestations of appro- 
bation. The lecturer commenced at twenty-five 
minutes past seven o'clock, and concluded at ten 
minutes to nine ; the time occupied being just 
one hour and a quarter. So deeply interesting 
was the subject, that the entire audience became 
entranced with its beautiful pictures, so elo- 
quently drawn and touchingly delivered, and 
the minutes passed away so quickly that it 
really seemed but half the time had been 
occupied. 

The evening was one that will ever be re- 
verted to with pleasure and gratification by 
those who were lucky enough to get within the 
walls of the building; and in order that the 
entire community may read for themselves what 
the audience heard delivered, we beg leave to 
present the following address. 

Editors Philadelphia Daily Sim. 



ADDRESS 



OF THB 



REV. JOSEPH F. BERG, D.J)., 

la Answer to the Lecture of Archbishop Hughes on the Decline 

of Protestantism. 

I am not ashamed of the Protestant name ! I hold 
it to be associated with all that gives character to the 
most liberal and enlightened nations on the globe. I 
am not ashamed of the Protestant faith. It is not the 
vague, unmeaning thing which its enemies would make 
it. It is something positive. In proof of this we point 
to the two most powerful Christian nations on earth ! 
The kingdom of Great Britain, and the Eepublic of 
the United States of North America are Protestant, 
and they owe their greatness to this very cause. We 
claim as due to Protestantism, the most brilliant achieve- 
ments and embellishments of literature, and the most 
profound investigations and discoveries of science, and 
we declare openly that neither literature nor science 
can flourish in any land that is bereft of the fostering 
care of Protestant culture. We hold Protestantism to 
be essential moreover to the very existence of sound 
Christianity. — No form of religious faith or worship, 
which distinctly discards the Protestant element from 
creed or cultus, whilst it holds on to the Christian 
name, ever has been, ever can be, ought else than a 
caricature of the religion of Jesus Christ. Protestant- 
ism is as essential to civil Hberty and to religious free- 
dom, as the air we breathe to the maintenance of life. 
You can have no just government, no equitable laws, 
protecting the sacred rights of person and property, 



6 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

securing to all honest and moral men^ liberty to wor- 
ship God as conscience bids them, without Protestantism. 
If the principles which belong to the great charter of 
human rights are losing favor with the masses of man- 
kind ; if the people of any nation under heaven are 
weary of the enjoyment of that liberty which secures 
to every man, the largest amount of personal comfort, 
wealth and happiness, compatible with the equal right 
'of his neighbor to the same — if the inhabitants of any 
civilized country are longing for the chains of despotic 
authority — or reaching forth their hands that they 
may be manacled, or bowing their necks in voluntary 
servitude to the yoke of tyranny, then I will admit 
" Protestantism is declining ;" but, if throughout the 
wide earth, wherever men have heard of Jesus Christ, 
and seen the light of heaven beaming from the Sacred 
Scriptures, there is a struggling against the old fetters 
of feudal tyranny — a loud and earnest remonstrance 
against the extortions and exactions of an established 
hierarchy — if there is a heaving of the down-trodden 
millions, who may not enjoy the rich bequest of heaven, 
because the heel of oppression tramples upon and 
crushes them — then in all these symptoms of resistance 
to perfidy and despotism, you have tokens of the ani- 
mating power of Protestantism — a vitality which never 
can be exhausted or destroyed, for it is imperishable as 
its Divine Author. 

I am here this evening to respond to an invitation 
addressed to me in the name of some of the most ex- 
cellent and venerable men in this community, both 
ministers of Christ and private Christians ; and whilst 
I can say, with all sincerity, that I would most heartily 
have put my name to a similar application, had it been 
addressed to another, I deem it a high honor to be 
your servant on this occasion, and I thank them for 
the privilege. A man of Gath has come forth to scoiF 
at the tribes of our Protestant Israel. He comes not, 
it is true, like him of old, with a helmet of brass upon 
his head — and verily he does not need it — but equipped 



ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 7 

with the mitre of an Archbishop, and redolent of con- 
secrating oil, if not of the odor of sanctity. The tones 
of his voice sound like the echo of the ancient cham- 
pion of Philistia, who shouted, " I defy the armies of 
Israel this day !'' In reliance upon the promise of 
Him who has declared that the weakest in that day 
shall be as David, I hope I shall be enabled , to deal 
with this Goliath, argumentatively, as the stripling of 
old dealt with his prototype ; and I deem it altogether 
in accordance with the usages of honorable warfare, 
that he should lose his head by the edge of his own 
sword — in other words, to drop the metaphor, his 
lecture shall be the instrument of his own rebuke. 
This lecture is entitled " The decline of Protestantism 
and its cause." It purports to have been delivered in 
St. Patrick's Cathedral, on Sunday evening, Nov. 10th, 
1850, by the Most Eeverend John Hughes, D. D., 
Archbishop of New York. 

Archbishop Hughes proclaims that Protestantism is 
declining, and that he finds the strongest authorities 
for this opinion among Protestants themselves, "who 
acknowledge, while they deplore and aim to arrest" 
this downward tendency. First, let us settle what we 
mean by Protestantism. Bishop Hughes is at a loss 
for a definition that will answer " the purposes of logi- 
cal or theological accuracy," though in its popular 
sense, he owns the term is clearly understood. This 
difficulty arises, in his mind, from the great diversity 
of the phases of Protestantism; there are so many 
Protestant sects, that a scientific man is puzzled to know 
what this thing you call Protestantism is. I propose 
to answer this question, first by asking another. What 
is Light ? Suppose this inquiry to be made by an un- 
fortunate man, who has lived all his life, like one pos- 
sessed, among the tombs, or who has, by a strange 
perversion of reason, or by the stress of circumstances 
and early prejudices, deliberately chosen a subterranean 
habitation. Pie is suddenly brought out into the sun- 
shine, and dazzled and blinded by the subtile agent 



8 DR. BERG^S REPLY TO ARCHBISHOP HUGHES 

which brings tears into his eyes^ he asks with peevish 
impatience, " What is this thing you call light ?" He 
sees itj or blinks at it, as its rays fall upon the prism 
which hangs before his bleared eye-balls, and he cries 
out with indignant amazement : What a confusion of 
colors ! What a worse than confounded and confound- 
ing blending of tints and hues ! Here this thing you 
call LIGHT, looks blue — and here it is azure — and 
there it kindles into purple — now it glows in crimson, 
and then it is yellow, and anon it is green as the grass 
in the Emerald Isle ! What is this thing you call 
Light ? Away with the nondescript ! Give me my sub- 
terranean shade ! Now, what is Protestantism ? It is 
the light of God's truth ! The effulgence that kindles 
on the inner man, as the soul is baptised in the glow 
of revealed religion ! It is the religion of the Bible ! 
The form which it takes, or the hue which it assumes, 
.depends upon the structure, and the position and the 
capacity, and the conditions of the mind that receives 
it. It strikes this man's conscience end heart, and 
he is a Methodist — ^warm, and red, and glowing; it 
falls upon another, and he is a Presbyterian — true, 
regular blue ; it comes upon another like the light 
azure tint of water, and he is a Baptist ; and so through 
all the bright and ever-varying, yet all-glorious colors 
of the moral rainbow, it produces variety without the 
sacrifice of real unity. It is God's bow in the clouds 
that hang lowering over our land, the beacon of the 
covenant, promising that the flood of Popery shall 
never again deluge the earth, or steep it in blood and 
sorrow ! The blending of all the prismatic colors is 
seen in the bright, colorless light ; and the moral influ- 
ence of all the varieties of evangelical Christianity is 
perceptible in the general intelligence, happiness, and 
piety— shedding peace, and contentment, and glory, 
upon the land — divesting Protestantism of all sectarian 
hue, by making holy living the essence of the religion 
which it universally prescribes. These men who can- 
not tell what Protestantism is, are the same who love 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 9 

darkness rather than light — who hate the light, and 
will not come to it, lest their deeds be reproved ! The 
same who suppress and forbid the free circulation of 
the Scriptures, who burn the Bible, and curse, and 
anathematise all who read it without their perversions 
and without their permission ! 

But, " Protestantism began in the year 1517." Softly, 
most Reverend Sir ! The name was given a little later 
than 1517, but the object designated by the name is as 
old as the canon of the New Testament. Old things 
sometimes have new names bestowed on them, and 
hence Protestantism, though as ancient as the doctrine 
of the Apostles Paul and John, obtained a generic 
name, though for a specific purpose. I will not yield 
this question of antiquity. I will not concede that 
the Protestant faith is an invention of yesterday, or 
only a little more than three hundred years old. The 
champion of the Papacy asks. Where was your religion 
hefore Luther ? I answer, it was in the Bible ; in the 
same book in which your religion is also revealed, with 
this difference, that the system you uphold stands forth 
as a predicted apostacy, which the Lord abhors, and 
which he will destroy ! This answer will not do how- 
ever. We are told, this religion of yours, this Protestant- 
ism must have had some adherents, now where were they ? 
Who were they before the days of " Brother Martin 
Luther?" 

To this I answer, the armies despatched by the 
Popes of Rome, or at their instigation, made war upon 
certain Christians dwelling in the vallies and amid the 
mountain fastnesses of Piedmont, centuries before the 
birth of Luther, because these Christians protested 
against the very doctrines and usages of the Papacy 
against which we protest — protested against the Pope 
as the Anti-Christ— protested against the worship of 
images, and relics, and canonized saints — protested 
against purgatory and pilgrimages, and works of satis- 
faction and penance — protested against the mass and 
auricular confession — and all the distinctive charac- 



1 



10 DR. berg's reply TO ARCHBISHOP HUGHES 

teristics of the Papacy ! And because they were Pro- 
testants — because they bore this unwavering and con- 
sistent testimony against the abuses of Eome, from the 
very date of their publication, and on the other hand, 
had contended for centuries before, with all earnest- 
ness, for the positive truths of the gospel^ the legions 
of the kingdoms, that lent their power to the Papacy 
poured in upon them, devastating their country, and 
slaying men, women, and children, without pity for the 
grey hairs of age, or the tender helplessness of infancy; 
and for centuries did this ruthless wrath bear down 
upon them, until scores of thousands and hundreds of 
thousands were slain ; yet they were not exterminated ; 
and to this very day, in the same fastnesses, the candle 
of the Lord is shining, and witnesses, lineal descend- 
ants of the Waldensian Churches, still testify, amid 
poverty and scorn, with the ancient ardor of their fore- 
fathers, that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, and that his 
image worship, and saint worship, and man worship, 
are so much idolatry — that his purgatory, and penances, 
and masses, and auricular confession, are devices of 
Satan — a scandal to all good Christians, and an abomi- 
nation before God! Say you, "Protestantism began 
in the year 1517." Most Reverend Sir, you are a 
learned man, and you know better. You have heard 
of one John Huss, who suffered martyrdom in 1415, 
more than a hundred years before Luther stood forth 
as a Reformer. He perished in the flames as " a ring- 
leader of Heretics," because he preached the doctrines 
of the Waldenses, suffering a cruel death, despite of 
the safe conduct of the Emperor Sigismund, that mo- 
narch yielding reluctant obedience to the decree of 
your (Ecumenical Council of Constance, which pro- 
claimed and settled infallibly, that no faith is to be 
KEPT WITH HERETICS ! A dogma which still darkens 
the pages of your statute book with its infamy, and 
which, on your own principles, you never can repeal ! 
Time would fail to tell of Jerome, of Prague, of Gerson, 
of the Bohemian Brethren, of Savanarola, in Italy, of 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 11 

Wickliffe, and the Lollards in England, of the Culdees 
in Scotland, and a host 'of martyred " Reformers be- 
fore the Reformation." Enough. Protestantism begaii 
before 1517. It began when an inspired Apostle pro 
tested against the apostacy which he describes in his 
first epistle^ to Timothy, when he says : — " Now the 
Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some 
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
spirits, and doctrines of demons; (departed spirits^ 
canonized saints and the like; ) speaking lies in hypo- 
crisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; 
forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from 
meats, which God hath created to be received with 
thanksgiving of them, which believe and know the 
truth" — marks of apostacy which are found in no other 
religious system, calling itself Christian, save in the 
creed of the Church of Rome. Protestantism began in 
the year 66 after Christ, not in 1517. The Apostle 
Paul was the first Protestant. Martin Luther came 
after him to sweep away the rubbish of Papal abuses, 
and rescue the truth, (that candle which the Church of 
Rome had put under a bushel,) from the delusion and 
fables and silly traditions of the great anti-Christ. 
From that day to this, the great question has been, 
Bible or no Bible ! All the efforts of the Papacy have 
been concentrated on the one grand enterprise of sup- 
pressing the knowledge of the gospel, revealed in the 
Sacred Scriptures ! This brings us to the point in 
Bishop Hughes' lecture upon which he puts the greatest 
emphasis. It is this : — " That within fifty years from 
its origin, Protestantism should have conquered and 
taken possession of every inch of ground of which it is 
in possession at this day, so that an old man of 1567^ 
could see Protestantism triumphant in all the nations 
I have mentioned, and look back to the memory of boy- 
hood when he knew brother Martin Luther, &c." Now, 
I ask, is this really true ? Had Protestantism in that 
day possession of every inch of ground that it holds 
now? Are there not a few inches of Protestant 



1!^ DR. berg's reply TO ARCHBISHOP HUGHES 

ground on this great American Continent, which have 
since that day been added to its domain ? Aye, a terri- 
tory equal to all that it ever won from Popery in its 
European strong holds ! Has it not conquered a few 
inches more in every quarter of the globe, Europe, Asia, 
Africa and America, by the labours of its pious, learned 
and self-denying missionaries ? Why, Most Reverend 
Sir, have you just started from a long sleep ? A sleep 
longer far than Eip Van Winkle's ? Or, are you dot- 
ing ? Or, have your new mitre and crozier made you 
delirious ? Or, what is the matter ? Had the Arch- 
bishop been less magnificent in his assertions, had he 
contented himself with saying that Protestantism has 
not extended its geographical limits on the continent of 
Europe^ I would have admitted the statement, for it is 
substantially correct ; but whilst I admit this fact, I 
shall take care to state the real causes which account 
for it. He says, " from Wirtemberg it spread through- 
out Northern Germany. It reached, in a different form, 
however, the Cantons of Switzerland. It penetrated 
the empire of France. It took possession of Prussia. 
It pervaded Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, En- 
gland and Scotland. It conquered them all. * * * 
The Irish nation stood together against it, and strug- 
gled with constancy, perseverance and determination. 
And although the battle has lasted for three hundred 
years, and although that down-trodden nation has suf- 
fered intensely for its adhesion to principle," (read Popery 
instead of principle, and it will be nearer the truth,) 
" still it did not give way to Protestantism." Now, be- 
cause the Protestant faith has not gained new territory 
in Europe, Archbishop Hughes thinks he may count 
with certainty upon its extinction in less than a cen- 
tury from the date of the publication of his recent lec- 
ture. He tells us, too, that it had peculiar advantages 
in England. It captured immense spoils from the 
Roman Church, which it superseded, and yet, though 
it still holds them, it has accomplished little or nothing 
compared with its means. Let us be candid. Pro- 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM.' 13 

testantism, we will acknowledge, has not done all that 
it ought, or all that it might have done. Why not? 
Let us own it ; Christians have not exhibited as much 
faith, and as much self-denial as their high profession 
demands; but this is not the only cause. Turn your 
eyes first to England. Let no man say that Protest- 
antism has failed there. No ! no ! the people of Great 
Britain, next to the citizens of our great Republic, are 
the most happy people on the face of the earth. The 
voice of that indignant nation, shouting in tones of 
mighty remonstrance against the stealthy and arrogant 
advances of the Papacy, is even now sounding over the 
broad Atlantic, and waking an echo in Protestant Ame- 
rica ! But why has not Protestantism gained even a 
stronger position in Britain ? It obtained immense re- 
sources in the forfeited revenues of the Papacy! Aye, 
and it took the curse that was upon that treasure, also ! 
God hates robbery for a burnt-offering. How had it 
been amassed ? By the most unblushing frauds ! By 
extortion, the most heartless ! By wringing from the 
hard hand of the honest labourer, his slender earnings, 
in exchange for holy beads and Agnus Deis and holy 
water, and all the apparatus of monkish superstition ! 
With importunity the most shameless, the mendicant 
priests of that Church, which avows its intention to 
convert the world, appealing now to the generosity, and 
then to the fears of its deluded votaries, crying give! 
give !! give !!! Give ! or the soul of the departed whom 
you love, cannot arise from its fiery bed in Purgatory ! 
Give ! or you cannot have our prayers or our masses ! 
No pence, no paternoster ! Give your money, or you 
perish ! — that Church, I say, has always been able to 
command resources for any exigency. It had them in 
abundance during the reign of Henry YIIL, and it lost 
them when that proud monarch quarrelled with the 
Pope. The King took the plunder from him, and esta- 
blished a Church of his own. As to religious principle, 
Henry YIIL had none, but it was well for England and 
the world, that the man to whom he gave his confi- 



14 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

dence, the maligned Cranmer, revered and loved the 
Scriptures ; and a still greater blessing for England and 
for the cause of truth, from that age to the present day, 
was conferred by the short reign of that model of Chris- 
tian kings, the pious and devoted Edward YI. I am 
not an Episcopalian — I never expect to be one — but, 
from my heart I avow it, I honor the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, not the Church of which Archbishop 
Laud is the type, but the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
as one of the noblest standard bearers of the Reforma- 
tion. The Church of England, with her noble army of 
martyr confessors — ^^vith her history, embalming the 
fragrant memories of a thousand master spirits of theo- 
logical science, with her strong " articles" of Protestant 
faith — has nothing to fear from the malice of open foes, 
or from the treachery of false children, who, like vipers, 
sting the bosom that has fostered them. She is Pro- 
testant to her heart's core, and her past history is the 
guerdon, that by God's grace, she will be Protestant to 
the end of time. Let her be agitated ! The agitation 
will only bring the scum to the surface, and if it over- 
flows, the sooner the refuse is cast into the cauldron of 
the Papacy and left to bubble there, the better for her 
purity and her strength. But I wish to the Church of 
England what I desire for the Presbyterian Church of 
Scotland, and for the Evangelical Church of Prussia, 
for the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and for every 
branch of the Reformed Church throughout Europe, to 
all alike, a speedy divorce from all unnatural and un- 
scriptural alliances with the State. This has been a 
canker-worm at the root of them aE, The time has 
been when such a repudiation would have been neither 
prudent nor desirable, but it has gone by. God in His 
providence has permitted it, that His Church, the Pro- 
testant Church — in all her branches, might draw profit 
from the lessons of experience, and learn that the name 
of the God of Jacob is her best defence ! This entan- 
glement is like the weight of Saul's armour upon the 
limbs of David. She can walk better, and work better, 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 16 

and fight better without it. The simple sling of gospel 
truth in the heaven-directed hand of the shepherd boy 
— the type of the Christian pastor — and the smooth 
stones gathered from the bed of the river of life, are all 
the oflfensive weapons that we need to send the missive 
of death crashing through the brazen helmet into the 
very brain of Antichrist. There is a moral union of 
Church and State resulting from the predominance of 
the popular or national religion — framing the laws, 
moulding the institutions of every country, and diffus- 
ing its influence like leaven through all the ramifica- 
tions of society ; and this is the only legitimate union 
— this is all that Protestantism requires, and it should 
seek no other. But there is another cause of the so- 
called decline of Protestantism, and would to God this 
cause had never existed. I will select one country out 
of the states mentioned by Archbishop Hughes, as an 
example with the simple remark, that the same prin- 
ciple applies to every European country, in which there 
has been any retrogression of Protestantism within the 
last two hundred and fifty years or more, and to some 
also, in which the religion of the Bible has steadfastly 
maintained its position, despite of all adverse influence. 
He says, " Go to France * * Travellers tell us 
that the temples there represent but a mockery of 
a memory of a departed creed ; that they are chill 
and dark, &c ! " Say, ye slaughtered Huguenots ! Who 
quenched the fire that once burned upon your altars ? 
Who made your temples "chill?" Who drove your 
myriads of devout worshippers from their loved sanc- 
tuaries, and made them "dark?" Oh! Archbishop 
Hughes ! how dare you point to France ? Have you 
never heard of the night of St. Bartholomew, in the 
year 1572? Did you not know that there are descen- 
dants of Hugonots in America, to remind you of it ? 
Yes, he knew it well — but he speaks with the sheer 
recklessness of arrogance ! He points to France, whose 
population was formerly almost equally divided be- 
tween the Koman Catholic and the Protestant elements, 



16 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

and tells you, those Protestant temples " are chill and 
dark ! " Think of thousands upon thousands of Protes- 
tants massacred in Paris alone ! Koused from their 
slumbers by the tolling of the tocsin, they are met in 
the streets by armed assassins, wearing the symbol of 
a white cross upon their shoulder ; unarmed and de- 
fenceless, suspecting no evil, they are lured like sheep 
to the shambles, and murdered by Popish ruffians. The 
tragedy was repeated in other cities, until France was 
dripping with Protestant blood. And when at last 
worn out by the perfidy and ruthless cruelty of their 
oppressors, who violated the most sacred treaties, rob- 
bing them of their dearest rights, so soon as their armies 
were disbanded, and their sword laid by in the scab- 
bard; when at last, after surrendering advantages gained 
in the open field, and time and again bowing in loyal 
submission to their King, and again and again seeing 
the most solemn stipulations violated, as though oaths 
and covenants were ordained to be broken; after wars 
carried on through successive generations, until they 
wejre reduced to a mere remnant, Louis set about the 
work of converting them to the Church of Rome. And 
who were the missionaries ? His brutal soldiery. He 
termed these expeditions " dragonades." The poor Hu- 
gonot had his choice between conformity to the creed 
and worship of Rome, or the prison and the gibbet. By 
these means, Louis boasted that he could succeed to 
admiration in taming the refractory. Thousands left 
their country, seeking an asylum in Holland, in the 
Palatinate, in England. I admit, Archbishop Hughes 
never said a word in all his life more strictly true, than 
when he told the wonder-stricken crowd in St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, that Protestantism had declined in France ! 
Now, in the brazen assurance with which he glories in 
its decline, he is entirely consistent. Is he not a son 
of an infallible church ? Is he not a most Reverend 
Archbishop ? And did not the Pope of Rome order a 
solemn Te Deum and a grand pontifical Mass in honor 
of the Bartholomew massacre, when the tidings came to 



ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 17 

the " Eternal city ? " Is not the medal still extant, which 
was cast in the Papal mint, bearing the bloody imprint, 
"Hugonotorum Stiages" the SlaiigJiter of the Hngonots? 
Rejoice, Archbishop ! If you can find pleasure in the 
thought that Protestantism has declined in France, re- 
joice ! But know thou, that for all these things, God 
will bring the accursed Papacy to judgment! This is a 
type of all the rest. In the Netherlands, in England, 
m Ireland, in Spain, aye even in Italy, Protestantism 
declined; in some instances, it was quenched, by the 
same infernal agencies. And now I ask, is it any won- 
der? Is not the marvel rather, that it exists at all? 
Is it not almost a miracle, that despite of all the hor- 
rible ordeals through which Protestantism has passed 
in successive ages, it still holds its own, and is as strong 
in Europe, in the aggregate, this day, as it was fifty 
years after the Reformation ? If it were not of God, it 
would long since have come to nought; but heaven- 
born as it is, it can never die ; it may decline, but it will 
revive ! It is like the bush that Moses beheld — it may 
burn, but it can never be consumed, for God is m it. 

Here I might pause and safely challenge a successful 
reply to my answer, but there are other statements and 
aspersions in the Archbishop's Lecture, which provoke 
comment and rebuke. He taunts Protestant Missions 
with want of success. He glorifies the success of simi- 
lar operations when conducted under the auspices of 
the Church of Rome. Hear him ! " We know that with- 
in our own memory, millions and millions of money 
from England and these United States, and hundreds, 
if not thousands of Missionaries have been sacrificed in 
the attempt to do something towards propagating Pro- 
testantism in the Pagan world ; and I say it boldly, 
without success." In boldness, the Archbishop is not 
deficient, especially when he thunders in St. Patrick's 
Cathedral. If his words were true as they are bold, 
they would indeed be terrible; but they are not. At 
this very hour there are not less than one hundred 
thousand converts from Paganism, in connection with 



18 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

the various departments of Evangelical Christianity, 
scattered among the heathen nations of the globe. [The 
lecturer here appealed to the Rev. David Malin, Secre- 
tary of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions, w^ho stated that the number was two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand.'] And how many thousands 
more have passed, in humble hope of eternal life, to the 
presence of the Judge of all, after casting their idols to 
the moles and bats, and washing their robes in the blood 
of the Lamb, the great day only can reveal. But what 
is this, compared with the wonders which Catholicism 
has wrought ? Hear the Archbishop again. " How 
strangly, and yet how instructively, has God mani- 
fested the distinction between truth and error? For 
while Protestantism has converted none, Catholicism 
has converted all ! " This is his language. It is highly 
figurative, brilliantly hyperbolical ! Jesuit Missionaries 
visited China many years ago ; and who does not know 
that the Celestials, Emperor and all, are good Catholics, 
everyone of them, and have been for many ages ! Charles 
Y., in olden times, ordered the Moors to be driven in 
crowds to the rivers of Spain, and had them duly bap- 
tiased ; and who does not know that the Moors are all 
good Catholics to the present hour ! There is not a Turk, 
or a Turk's son, or a Mussulman in Asia and Africa, but 
has been converted ; for " Catholicism has converted all !" 
Not an Indian in America, Apache, Blackfoot, or Chero- 
kee, but is a good son of the Church; for "Catholicism 
has converted all ! " Oh ! rare Catholicism ! Oh 1 stupen- 
dous Archbishop ! How the faithful in New York must 
have wondered when they thought of the eagle eye and 
the trumpet voice of the eloquent Dr. Tyng, and learned 
that he was converted, and that the learned De Witt 
and his venerable colleagues, and the whole Protestant 
pulpit of that great city sparkling with intellect and 
genius, and all the inhabitants of New York, had been 
brought into the one fold; and that even the fearless 
champion of Protestantism, Dr. Brownley, had at last 
seen the error of his way, and was coming on his crutches, 



ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 19 

like old Captain Experience, in Bunyan's Holy War, to 
kiss the hand of their great Archbishop ! I know he does 
not mean to claim such triumphs for the Catholicism 
which he extols. Then let him refrain from these extra- 
vagant expressions in future. Let him not say "while 
Protestantism has not converted none — Catholicism has 
converted all!" But a truce to raillery. Catholicism 
may boast of its Pagan triumphs ! Protestants covet no 
conversions such as she accomplishes ! The claims of 
Protestant faith are not so easily satisfied. We do not 
substitute one set of images for another, or baptise Pagan 
deities and give them Christian names! Papal Rome 
occupied the ancient Pantheon, and suffered the Pagan 
Deities to remain enshrined in their vast temple. She 
was content to call the statue of Jupiter the image of 
St. Peter, and to deck the image of Venus wdth jewels 
and garlands consecrated to the Virgin Mary ; and why 
need the worshippers resent the innovation? Protes- 
tant Missionaries preach repentance toward God ! They 
denounce idolatry — either in praying to images or in 
praying before them ! They preach faith in Jesus. They 
insist upon a change of heart. They demand a holy 
life. This is what ^oe mean by conversion; and we 
admit, CatliolicisTn makes more converts in her way, 
than Protestantism ever has done in its way. The 
Archbishop sneers at its success in the Sandwich Islands ; 
but he forgets to remind us of the outrage upon Tahiti^ 
where a few years ago, French brandy and Popery 
were crowded upon the poor natives at the cannon's 
mouth, and at the point of the bayonet. 

I pass to another point. Archbishop Hughes com- 
mits the gross injustice of charging upon Protestantism 
the infidelity and the fanaticism of all who are not Ro- 
man Catholics in civilized countries. He charges all 
the forms of error which spring from the perversion 
and abuse of the right of private judgment upon the 
principle itself; and yet he indignantly repels the sug- 
gestion that forms of infidelity have been developed in 
in the bosom of the Church of Rome. He says^ the 



20 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

Catholic Church possesses "no charm to prevent a man 
bent on error from indulging his propensities." I an- 
swer, neither does Protestantism. He rejoins, the Pro- 
testant jpreaclier may proclaim infidelity and he a Pro- 
testant stilly hut the Catholic priest " can never do so as 
a Catholic" Yes, but this a distinction very much like 
that made by the feudal Catholic Bishop in the good 
old times, who was both a temporal and spiritual prince, 
and who replied when rebuked for his profanity, that 
hie swore as a Baron and not as a Bishop. " But my 
Lord," rejoined his reprover, "I fear should the Baron be 
damned, the Bishop will not be far off!" I can see no 
advantage in this distinction between teaching infidelity 
as a man and teaching it as a Catholic, unless it be 
this, that he is compelled to keep up an appearance of 
conformity, but what is this worth if it be not real ? 
The sins of infidelity and rationalism are not legitimate 
results of the Protestant principle. They are abuses 
which Protestantism condemns, and which it never has 
originated. 

' But there are " your Joe Smith a,nd the Mormons 1" 
Our Joe Smith? Why, Joe is cut off by the very 
terms of our rule — " the Bible, and the Bible only is 
the religion of Protestants !" He has new revelations 
and lots of traditions, almost as interesting as the sto- 
ries in Butler's Lives of the Saints. We cannot fellow- 
ship the Mormons ! 

" You have your Father Millers, also !" True there 
was a Father Miller some time ago, but I believe he is 
dead. Well, the poor man was mistaken, and he led 
others with him into delusion ! The naore is the pity ; 
but was it the Bible that deceived Father Miller, or was 
it his misapprehension of it? If the latter, do not 
blame our rule. If the former, you may safely de- 
nounce the right of the laity to read the Scriptures — 
in that case, it is a bad book, and you are right in con- 
demning it to the flames ! Father Miller was in error ; 
but then you know, most Reverend Sir, it is the lot of 
a favored few only to be infallible. 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 21 

Again the Archbishop is severe on the conventions 
of women, clamoring for their " Rights," and he charges 
Protestantism with all the extravagance of such " Con- 
gresses." Here, however, he leaves out of view the im- 
portant fact that the leaders in this threatened social 
revolution, do not stand upon the Protestant platform. 
They denounce the Bible as the greatest hindrance to 
their success. How then can Protestantism be condemn- 
ed for originating fanaticism, which it most earnestly 
disowns ? So far as real grievances exist in the social 
condition, or position of women, the clear exposition 
of the Scriptural principles which apply to her rela- 
tions in life, will secure all the rights which belong to 
her. Her experience, all the world over, has proved 
that she is safe from oppression only in Protestant 
countries, and safe only when protected by the ^gis 
of Protestant faith. The grand difficulty in the posi- 
tion of Bishop Hughes, is found in his perversion of 
the Protestant Rule of Faith. The favorite argument 
with all the advocates of Romanism is, that there can 
be no security for the soundness of faith in Protestant- 
ism, because it utterly rejects Church authority. It does 
not . Just as if Protestants believed, and taught that every 
man has a perfect moral right to think as he pleases in 
matters of religion ! This is an absurdity which is con- 
tradicted by the admitted truth, that God has prescribed 
the articles of religious belief in that Revelation, which 
we make the rule of our Faith. Our creeds and con- 
fessions and catechisms are so many traditionary forms, 
not presented as additional Rules of Faith, but offered 
as exponents of one and the same rule. They may 
differ, and they do differ on some points ; but in the 
main, in the leading articles of our common, undoubted 
Christian Faith, they are one. We take the ground 
and we avow the principle, that " God alone is Lord of 
the conscience" — that the Scriptures themselves demand 
an appeal to their own teachings " To the Law and 
to the Testimony ! If they speak not according to this 
rule, it is because there is no light in them !" " Search 



22 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

the Scriptures." In other words, the Bible deals with 
every man as accountable to God, it treats him as a 
rational creature, capable of understanding the divine 
law, and demands of him the right exercise of all his 
faculties in forming his religious principles. He is to 
judge for himself, and he is to answer to God for his 
opinions. The Church of Rome on the other hand 
proposes that every man shall trust implicitly to her 
authority. You must believe this, because the Church 
teaches it. You must receive this doctrine and that 
usage, though they be not prescribed in the " charter" 
which God has given you, because the Church enjoins 
them ! Now, as Protestants, we utterly deny that God 
has delegated any such authority to any hierarchy under 
heaven ! As Protestants, we proclaim the great prin- 
ciple of liberty from the spiritual yoke of man's autho- 
rity ! We own none as head of the Church, save Him 
whom God has appointed, even the Lord Jesus Christ ! 
The whole argument of Bishop Hughes tends to the 
destruction of this liberty. He must have a Human 
Head to preside over the Church of his choice. A vi- 
sible Head, in a word, an infallible Pope ! And a more 
irrational and unphilosophical conclusion he could not 
reach. A more ridiculous pretension than this of pa- 
pal infallibility, never was invented to torment the 
credulity of man. This tendency to despotic authority 
is the very salient point of all the danger that is threat- 
ened to free institutions by the prevalence of Catholi- 
cism. It claims supremacy as a divine right. From 
its very nature it is not content, and never can be sa- 
tisfied with equal privileges. To be true to itself, it 
must rule, and rule with a rod of iron ! It can tole- 
rate no plea for the rights of conscience, except when 
through its own weakness, it is compelled to whisper 
out of the dust. When it can get no more, it will ac- 
cept toleration, and bide the time when it can issue its 
mandates with the voice of a merciless tyrant. Thus, 
Archbishop Hughes rails at the Established Church of 
England, as a " State slave !" The Church of Rome 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 2S 

holds a different station. She is the '^ State Mistress P' 
She is the despot that sways the mind of the judge, 
and wields the hand of the magistrate, that compels 
the very monarch upon his throne to bow reverently 
before her claim of temporal supremacy. Thus one 
Pope compels an Emperor of Germany to stand bare- 
foot at his gates for three days, like the veriest culprit, 
before he can gain an audience, and another plants his 
foot upon the neck of a King, quoting the words of 
David, " thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder !" 
Hence have arisen all the scenes of cruelty and per- 
secution against Protestants, with which her annals are 
stained. I am aware of the plea which has been used 
in controversies upon this point, and I will notice it 
here, from a conviction that gross injustice has been 
done to the Protestant side, through a failure to ap- 
preciate the peculiar circumstances of the crisis. 
We are told that Protestants have persecuted those 
whose religious tenets differed from their own, and 
have persecuted them for conscience' sake. I ad- 
mit it. But who taught them to do it ? The Church 
of Rome ! What drove them to it ? What ! but the 
example of the Church of Rome! There is this 
difference, however, between us. We utterly renounce 
all right to persecute others for opinion's sake. The 
Church of Rome still claims it ! She still avows it ! 
And wherever she has the power, she enforces her 
claim. Look at her theological standards, and you 
find that at this very day she teaches her students 
of theology that " heretics are justly punished with 
death !" Witness the recent facts in Madeira. Hun- 
dreds of Portuguese have been banished from the 
Island, because they were Bible readers ! Hunted 
like wild beasts, they were driven to mountains and 
caves, their property was confiscated, and they were 
outlawed, for no other crime than preferring the truth 
of God to the fables of Rome ! In one point, the Church 
of Rome always has been consistent. She has always 
been a persecutor of Protestants when she has had the 



24 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

power.* Now, let us suppose a case. Fifty years hence, 
in the progress of Catholicism anticipated by Arch- 
bishop Hughes, this country will have reached a crisis 
of no ordinary magnitude and moment. The Church 
of Rome will have gained, if he is correct, a vast 
amount of power, and will have amassed large resour- 
ces. She will perhaps be able to control our elections, 
to choose our President and the Governors of the dif- 
ferent States, and to secure a majority of the Senators 
and Representatives in our National and State Legisla- 
tures. She may, perhaps, not be able to number a 
majority of the people of the United States as actually 
in her communion, but she has more than the balance 
of power, and she will lend it to any political party 
that will subserve her interests. Then, in the natural 
course of events, she will begin to demand certain 
prerogatives, and to claim sundry concessions and spe- 
cial legislation, by way of acknowledgment. Peradven- 
ture, after having driven the Bible out of the public 
schools, she will find it desirable to expel it from all 
other public institutions; and having accomplished 
this, she will next assail the freedom of the Protestant 
pulpit. This lecturing on Romanism will never do. 
It is a bad thing, for it excites the people, and there- 
fore it must he put down. Yes, but there are some Pro- 
testants of that stern stuff that will not be put down, 
so long as they have eyes, wherewith to read, and hearts, 
wherewith to love, and a voice to give utterance to the 
doctrines of the Bible. What then? They are dis- 
turbers of the peace ; they incite to riot and disorder, . 
and the halter must tame them ! So be it. We will 
suppose that a few of the more pestilent of these Pro- 
testant prep^chers are put to death, and the wrong is to- 
lerated ; though many secretly resent it, they are afraid 
to speak out, and the powers that be have more halters. 
Next it will be found desirable to produce uniformity, 
and Protestantism will be proscribed. You must either 
go to mass and to confession, and send your wives and 

* The early history of Maryland has been cited as evidence to the contrary, but 
the case is not in point. 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 25 

daughters there, that bachelor priests may ransack 
their consciences, and propound inquiries before which 
modesty drops dead ! — you must either give up your 
Bibles or go to the stake. Some go to the stake. 
They are burned. And now the spirit of resistance 
bursts forth like a smothered flame, and the indignation 
of all liberal and patriotic men is excited to the utmost 
pitch. They throw off the yoke and the tyrant Church 
is in her turn proscribed. Her priests are driven out 
of the land, glad to escape with their lives. Now, 
this is properly no fancy sketch. I do not say, it is a 
thing which will be, but it is a thing which substan- 
tially has been, and it serves to show how Protestants 
have been implicated in persecuting the Eoman Catholic 
Church. Queen Elizabeth, of England, proscribed the 
Jesuits, and sent some of them to the gallows. Why ? 
Because they plotted against her crown and govern- 
ment, and sought to restore the Pope's supremacy. And 
with the fires of Smithfield, at which a E-idley and a 
Latimer had suffered martyrdom, still in the remem- 
brance of the living generation, with the reign of 
terror, the scenes of bloodshed and torture, signalizing 
the days of Bloody Queen Mary, greater leniency or 
less severity could hardly be expected. 

Archbishop Hughes avows that it is the intention 
of the Church of Rome to have this country. Well, 
all well informed persons knew that long ago. The 
Pope of Rome has set his heart upon it. He cannot 
do without it, for Popery is waning in Europe. Will 
he succeed? I believe not. If he does, Protestants 
will deserve to feel the lash, which his priests will 
apply with hearty good will. We are to be converted, 
forsooth ! Converted to what ? To idolatry — to man- 
worship, and image- worship, and daemon-worship ! Con- 
verted ! From what ? From Christianity to Popery 1 
From the truth, as it is in Jesus, to the abominable 
fooleries of a system which is as insulting to God as it 
is degrading to man ! 

I can almost see the smile of honest pity which will 
kindle on the face of the Quaker, when Archbishop 



26 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes 

Hughes draws near, rosary in hand, to convert him to 
the pious task of saying prayers by the help of a string 
of beads ! Will not his quiet answer be — " Friend John, 
I perceive that in all things thou art too superstitious !" 
And what will our Archbishop do with the Methodists, 
and the Presbyterians, and the Episcopalians, and the 
Baptists, and the Lutherans, and the German Re- 
formed, and Reformed Dutch, and with all the tribes of 
our Protestant Israel ! Let him remember that if the 
Church of Rome is adding to her communion, so are 
we, and in a larger ratio than she can equal by her 
importations from abroad. I tell you. Archbishop 
Hughes, you might as well try to pluck the rainbow 
from the clouds, as to destroy the power of the Pro- 
testant Church in America ! You may try to persuade 
the citizens of this great Republic, that the glimmer of 
your little taper is brighter than the light of the sun 
in the firmament, and if they will believe you, this 
land will belong to you, and the Pope and Satan, so 
long as its inhabitants prefer darkness to light ! 

I find no fault with Archbishop Hughes for making 
this avowal. The spirit of our free institutions gives 
to the Church of Rome and to all who prefer her com- 
munion, the right of worshipping in accordance with 
conscientious convictions, but it gives no more ; and 
when she assumes the air of a Queen and demands 
more than the position which belongs to her, she steps 
upon ground which will open a grave at her feet! 
There is a noble bird which soars high, and suffers 
little birds to sing. The serpent may bask in the sun- 
shine, and cast his scaly skin, and mark his pathway 
over the rock in glittering slime, and the noble eagle 
heeds him not ; but, when he climbs the cliflf on which 
she has built her nest, and rears his head to strike her 
eaglets, in that very instant her beak and talons are 
upon him, to tear him skin and scales, joint from joint, 
and hurl him bleeding and torn back to his slimy 
covert ! 

As Protestants, we are bound by the very principles 



ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 27 

of our profession, to accord to all, and to defend the 
right of all men to liberty of conscience, and to the 
free and open discussion of the principles of their reli- 
gion and of our own ; and as Protestants we claim the 
same privileges for ourselves. We demand no more, 
and we never will accept less ; and we say with all 
candor, that if any system of religion cannot endure 
the ordeal of searching investigation and scrutiny, it 
is because God never intended that it should flourish 
on soil consecrated to liberty. 

We are told by Archbishop Hughes, that " the first 
exigency of condition in Protestantism, was to pull 
DOWN. Its first mission was not to build up, but to 
pull down." Truly ! Under the Levitical law, when 
a house was hopelessly infected with the leprosy, the 
statute required that it should be pulled down. And 
the inspired Apostle has declared that the mission of 
Christianity is similar. " For," says he, " the weapons 
of our warfare are mighty, through God, to the pulling 
DOWN of strongholds !" We must pull down the rub- 
bish of the Papacy, before we can build up believers 
as living temples of the Holy Ghost. 

The Archbishop ridicules the positive and negative 
elements of Protestantism; it says "yes," and it 
says " no." Truly ! And what religion does not ? We 
say " yes" to every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God — ^we say " no" to every tradition which 
is wholly of human invention. We will say as Pro- 
testants, in a word, now and forever, " No Popery !" 

Archbishop Hughes imagines, that because we avow, 
that we are Protestants, we thereby affirm " that Christ 
established a church for the purpose of propagating his 
doctrine, but that after fifteen hundred years, it had 
failed, and we had come to renew it." No, Most Reve- 
rend Sir ! That is a wrong inference. The Church of 
God, under the old covenant, was corrupted and led 
away into Babylonish captivity, but though it became 
as Sodom and Gomorrah, and was cast forth as an 
abominable branch, yet God preserved to limself a 



28 DR. berg's replt to archbishop hughes 

remnant. And the same is true in the New Covenant. 
God never has left himself without witnesses. Elijah 
mourned that he alone was left of the Lord's prophets, 
but God told him he had reserved to himself more than 
seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, 
or kissed his images. So in the darkest days of Papal 
supremacy, the Lord preserved a remnant, preserved it 
too, despite of all the power of Anti-christ, and of all 
his efforts to destroy it. The Church of God is not a 
failure, because for a season to prove her and instruct 
her, she is made to dwell in the wilderness ! When 
Archbishop Hughes ventures the tremendous assertion, 
that in the Church of Rome perfect unity of doctrine 
always has obtained, he says the boldest thing which 
he ever uttered in St. Patrick's Cathedral. I will read 
the extract, and it is the last which I shall notice. 
After stating that in all probability, not ten Protestants 
out of the whole number of fifty millions, " could be 
found to agree on all points, in substance and detail, in 
the principles and doctrines of Christian Revelation," 
he adds : " On the other hand, the Catholic Church 
numbers two hundred millions, scattered all over the 
globe, from the rising to the setting of the sun ; and I 
run no risk in stating^ that out of these two hundred 
millions, there could not be found ten, in whose inmost 
souls there exists the slightest deviation from the 
actual, and of course original doctrines of the Church, 
in regard to the Revelations of the Son of God !" This 
audacity is beyond any parallel, which can be run any 
where, out of the Church of Rome ! To all this I 
answer: Take any ten Evangelical Christians, out of 
as many Protestant denominations ; and in all the fun- 
damental articles of Christian faith, in all the points 
which involve the salvation of the soul, and in the great 
practical duties enjoined by the religion of Jesus Christ, 
they will speak with one heart and one voice. They 
will tell you, that faith in Christ and holy living as its 
fruit, are the only real evidences of a regenerate heart. 
Has the Church of Rome never deviated from the ori- 



ON THE DECLINE OP PROTESTANTISM. 29 

ginal doctrines of the Church of Christ? The very 
question is an insult to the understanding of an 
intelligent Christian. I will vary the inquiry, and ask, 
Has the Church of Rome always been doctrinally con- 
sistent with herself? Then how is it, that to this very 
day, she cannot tell us where the infallibility of which 
she boasts, resides ? Is it in the Pope, or in the Coun- 
cils, or in the Pope and Councils together ? Settle the 
Italian and Gallic dispute on this point, which is rife at 
this very day ; for until you do. Archbishop, your boast- 
ing is too contemptible for sober argument. Remember 
the feud respecting the immaculate conception of the 
Virgin Mary ; think of your Dominican and Franciscan 
broils — call to mind a few of the great schisms re- 
corded in the history of Papal Rome, in which rival 
Popes cursed and excommunicated each other, and 
before you step forth again to extol the unity of faith 
and practice, which you display as a mark of the true 
Church, remember this, that whenever you can find 
leisure for the task, there are many Protestants who 
will be ready to receive the proof by which you can 
reconcile your purgatory and your penances, and your 
indulgences, your mariolatry and your distinctions be- 
tween latreia and douleia, and your auricular confes- 
sion and your denial of the Scriptures to the laity, and 
your bead-praying, and your scapulars, and all your 
Roman notions, with the original revelations of the 
Son of God ! 

I have endeavoured to show cause why as Protest- 
ants we may demur to the extravagant assumptions, 
and the reckless aspersions of this man of Gath, and 
although he may fortify himself with a hundred pre- 
dictions, culled from the brilliant aphorisms of Ma- 
caulay, they will not help his cause. The defamer of 
Thomas Cranmer and of William Penn will hardly gain 
that credit as a prophet, which, as a historian, he has 
lost ! 

Here then I take leave of the Archbishop's lecture. 
Before I close, allow me a few words more. I am 



30 DR. berg's reply to archbishop hughes, 

ready again to admit, that the present aspect of Pro- 
testantism is not all that can be desired. Protestant- 
ism has not yet fulfilled its mission, nor will its errand 
be accomplished until this globe shall be encircled with 
a broad belt of light and love. We make too little of 
the ideal Church, the Holy Catholic Church, comprising 
all the mystical members of the glorious body of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and we often make too much of our 
denominational peculiarities. Protestants ought to be 
more closely allied, and they will be. They ought to look 
more closely at points of agreement, and less at points 
of difference. The external pressure of infidelity and 
Popery may be one means of bringing them more closely 
together; but the principle of union must be in us, in 
order to lead to permanent and living results. The 
tribes of Israel are still in the wilderness, but there is 
a Canaan of promise before them, where there shall be 
one fold and one Shepherd forever. For every sen- 
tence I have uttered, for every statement I have made, 
whether of fact or doctrine, I desire to be held to the 
strictest account. I love the noble sentiment of the 
old Koman, " I dare not say aught that is false — and I 
am not afraid to say anything that is true!' If assailed 
with obloquy, I tell you beforehand, that can make no 
impression upon me. I am used to it. If I am met by 
argument, I am ready in any public way to defend the 
truth, whenever assailed by an enemy who has charac- 
ter and reputation ; but I will notice no other. And 
to all the approaches of the lordly assailants, who pro- 
claim the approaching downfall of our Protestant faith, 
and laugh to scorn the pure doctrines of the Sacred 
Scriptures, I would say in the words of the noble Beza, 
when the Reformed Church was threatened by the im- 
perious King of France, with a renewal of persecution — 
" Sire, the Church of Christ is an anvil, which 
has worn out many a hammer." 



FATHER CLEMENT 



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mmm nkimm ^mm.. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF « THE ABBEY OF INNISMOYLE," 
"PROFESSION IS NOT PRINCIPLE," &c. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 
T. B. PETERSON, No. 98 CHESNUT STREET. 

1848. 




Price 25 Cents. 




T. B. PETER SO*., 

No. 98 Chesnut Street, Philadelpliia, 

Has just Published, and for Sale, the following works, 

Which can be obtained of aU the Principal Booksellers and News 
Agents throughout the U. S., at PubUsher's Pnces, 



SYBIL LENNARD, a Record of Woman's Life. By MRS. GREY, 
author of " The Duke and the Cousin," " The Gambler's Wiie," 
etc. One volume, octavo, price 25 ents. 
THE DUKE AND THE COUSIN, by MRS. GREY, author of 

" Sybil Lennard," etc. One volume, octavo, price 25 cents. 
LIEBIG'S AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY ; or, Chemistry in its 
application to Agriculture and Physiology. By PROFESSOR 
LIEBIG. One volume, octavo, paper cover, price 2o cents. 
LIEBIG'S ANIMAL CHEMISTRY : or, ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, 
in its application to Physiology and Pathology. By PROFESSOR 
JUSTUS LIEBIG. One volume, octavo, paper cover, price 2o 
cents. 
An edition of Professor Liebig's two works, Agricultural and Animal 
Chemistry, is also issued, neatly bound together, in one large 
volume, octavo, price 62^ cents. 
FLIRTATION, A STORY OF THE HEART. By LADY CHAR- 
LOTTE BURY, author of ''The Divorced." One volume, 
octavo, paper cover, price 25 cents. 
ABBEY OF INNISMOYLE. A Story of Another Century. By 
tlie author of " Father Clement," cloth, 37^ cents; paper cover 
2 J ppnts 
A NARRATIVE OF THE INIQUITIES AND BARBARITIES 
PRACTISED AT ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
By RAFFAELE CIOCCI, formerly a Benedictine and Cistercian 
Monk. One volume, 12mo., paper cover, price 2o cents. 
■Nn?TTTinP4THY • or the true principles of the art of Healing the 
S^cKy GALVANISM ELECTRICITY, and MAGNETISM, in 
the cure of Disease. By Frederick Hollick, M. D. Paper cover, 
price 25 cents. 
OUTLINES OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. By Frederick 
Hollick, M. D. One volume, quarto, bound, price OISE DULLAK 
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN, from the time of 
its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII. By D. JUAN 
ANTONIO LLORENTE. One volume, octavo, 208 pages— Halt 
cloth, 50 cents ; paper cover 37i cents. 
FATHER CLEMENT. A ROMAN CATHOLIC STORY. By 
the author of " Abbey of Innismoyle," "The Dicision," "Pro- 
fession not Principle," etc. Paper cov^, price 25 cents. 
DE CORMENIN'S HISTORY OF THE POPES. By LOUIS 
MARIE DE CORMENIN. Translated from the French— and 
embellished with sixteen superbly colored engravings ot POPES, 
CARDINALS, &c. IN FULL COSTUME. 
Anv of the above works, neatly bound in Paper covers, can be sent 
by mail to any part of the United States at a trifling expense for 
Postage. 
Any of the above works will be sold to Booksellers, News Agents, 
and Pedlars at a very liberal discount. 

ADDR , ^ ^^ PETERSON, No. 98 Cliesiiiit Street, 

PHU-ADEUPHIA. 



^ ^ f 



/1P>^ 





Price 12o Cents. 



DR. BERG'S ANSWER TO THE LECTURE OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES 
ON THE DECHfJE OF PROTESTANTIS}!. 








ri LE^TUEE: 



.^ 



PELIVKRED IX THE 



MUSICAL FUND HALL 



On Tuesday Evening, iroveml)er 26, 1850. 



ly ANSWER TO 



BISHOP HUGHES ON THE DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 



BY THE 



REV. JOSEPH F. BERG, D.D., 



PASTOR OF THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH, RACE STREET. 



revised:and corrected by the author for publication. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
T. B. PETERSON, No. 98 CHESTNUT STREET. 

ONE DOOR ABOVE THIRD. 



King & Baird, Frinten, 



Ko. 9 Sansom Street. 



(>i 







\ 



IfVINTER READING!— NOW IS THE TIME TO GET IT CHEAP !!! 



Books for Evcryhoily ; ai greaUy rctluccti^ rates. 

Published and for sale by T. B. PETERSON, No. 98 Chesnut Street, Philadelphia 

ANY FIVE OF ANY OF THE BOOKS MENTIONED below, Tvill be given to any one, or sent to anyone, to any vhro in 
tliis country, for One Dollar, or elercn of any of them will be given for Two Dollars, or seventeen for Three Dolliirs. ^o 
make out your lis^ts all over the city and country, and lay in a stock of reading for the approaching winter, and t .11 in 
person, or send on your orders at once for them. The price of any single one is 25 cents. 



The following are by ELLEN PICKERING : 



The Orphan Niece. 
Kate Walsingliara. 
Tlae Poor Cousin. 
•11k- Quiet Husband. 
Who Sliall be Heir ? 
The Secret Foe. 
Xhe Expectant. 



Ellen Wareham. 

Nan Darroll. 

Cousin Ilinton. 

The Prince and the Pedler. 

The Merchant's Daughter. 
The Hcires.?. The Squire. 

The Fright. Agnes Serle. 



The following are by CAPTAIN MARPvYAT : 

Peter Simple. The Pirate and Three Cutters. 

Jacob Faithful. The Naval Officer. 
Japhet in Search of a Father. Snarleyyow, or the Dog Fiend. 

The Phantom Ship. Newton Forster, 

Midshipman Easy. The King's Own. 

The Pacha of Manj- Tales. Valerie ; his last. 

The following are by MRS. GREY : 

Lena Cameron, or the Four The Manoeuvring Mother. 

Sisters. • The Baronet's Daughters. 

The Belle of the Family. The Young Prima Donna. 

Sybil Lcnnard, a Record of Harry Mouk. 

"Woman's Life. * The Old Dower House. 

The Duke and the Cousin. Hyacinthe. or the Contrast. 

The Little Wife. Alice Seymour. 



The following are by T. S. ARTHUR 
Love in a Cottage. Insubordination. 

Love in High Life. Lucy Sandford. 

Agnes ; or. The Possl^gd. The Broken Promise. 

Works by tnfesmost Popular Authors. 

The Orphan Child, by thVCountcss of Dlessington. 

Grace Dudley, or Arnold M Sjir:ttoga, by C. J. Peterson. 

Remarkable Apparitions and Ghost Stories, illustrated. 

Madison's Exposition of the Awful and Terrifying CcrL-mo- 
nies of Odd Fellowship. Full of plates. 

Liebig's celebrated work on Agricultural Chemistry. 

Animal Chemistry, by Professor Liebig, in one volume. 

Father Clement, by the author of " Abljey of Innismoyle." 

The Abbey of innismoyle, by the author of '■ DunaJlen." 

The Insnared, a Story of the Heart, by Charlotte Bury. 

Flirtation, or Real Scenes in Life, by Charlotte Bury. 

Narrative of the Iniquities and Barbarities practised at 
Rome in the Nineteenth Century, by Raffaelle Ciocci, formerly 
a Benedictine and Cistercian Monk. 

The Fortune Hunter, by Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt. 

Abednego, the Money Lender, by 5Irs. Gore. 

Gliddon's Ancient Egypt, her Monuments, Hieroglyphics, 
&c. Full of illustrations. 

The True Art of Healing the Sick, by Dr. Ilollick. 

The Beautiful French Girl. A very good book. 



Any five of any of the above works at all will be given or sent to any one for one dollar, eleven for two dollars, or seven- 
teen for three dollars. The price of any of them singly is 2.5 cents. Persons in the country need only enclose one dollar or 
more in a letter, and say what ones they wish, and they w;ill be sent at once. 



Lever's Novels— the most Humorous in the World. 

CHARLES O'JI ALLEY, the Irish Dragoon. Complete in 
one volume of 32-1- pages. Price 50 cents. 

.TACK IlINTON, the Guardsman. Complete in one volume 
of 165 pages. Price 37 ^ cents. 

THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. A Tale of the time of the 
Union. Complete in one fine octavo volume of 226 pages, 
beautifully illustrated. Price 50 cents. 

Alexander Dumas' Works. The best in the World. 
DIANA OF MERIDOR ; the Lady of Monsoreau ; or, France 
in the Sixteenth Century. An Historical Romance. Com- 
plete in two large octavo volumes of 538 pages, with numer- 
ous illustrative engravings. Price One Dollar. 

THE REIGN OF TERROR; Genevieve, or, the Chevalier 
of the Maison Rouge. An Historical Romance of the French 
Revolution. Complete in one octavo volume of over 200 pages, 
with numerous engravings. Price for the entire work, 50 cts. 

ISABEL OF BAVARIA: or, the Chronicles of France for 
the Reign of Charles the Sixth. Complete in one fine octavo 
volume of 212 pages. Price 50 cents. 

EDMOND DANTES. Being a sequel to Dumas' celebrated 
novel of the Count of Monte Cristo. "With elegant illustra- 
tions. Complete in one volume of over 200 pages. Price 50 cts. 



Works by Various Good Authors. 

VALENTINE VOX, the A'entriloquist. The Life and Ad- 
ventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist, by Henry 
Cockton. author of "Sylvester Sound," etc. Complete in one 
volume of 317 pases. Price 50 cents. 

ARISTOCRACY: Or Life among the Upper Ten. A true 

novel, founded on the Fashionable Society of Philadelphia. 

By Joseph A. Nunes. of the Philadelphia Bar. Price 50 cents. 

'SALATHIEL; OR, THE AVANDERING JEW. By Rev. 

George Croly. Price 50 cents. 

TEN THOUSAND A YEAR. By the author of a '-Diary 
of a London Physician." Complete in one volume of 432 
patres. Price 50 cents. 

LLORENTE'S HISTORY OF THE INQLiTSITION IN 
SPAIN, complete in one octavo volume. Price 37^ cents. 

OUTLINES OF ANAT03IY AND PHYSIOLOGY, with a 
large dissected plate of the Human Figure, colored to life. 
By the celebrated Dr. HoUick. Price one dollar. 

THE LADIES' WORK TABLE BOOK. A work every 
lady in the land should possess. Price 60 cents. 

A WINTER GIFT FOR LADIES. With instructions in 
Knitting, Netting and Crochet Work. Price 12| cents. 

ODD FELLOWSHIP EXPOSED. With all the Signs, Grip.?, 
Pass-words, etc. Illustrated. Price 12^ cents. 

MORMONISM EXPOSED ; full of engravings. Price 12.1 eta 



SPECIAL NOTICE TO EVERYBODY. — Any person whatever in this country, wishing any of the above works 
published by T. B. Peterson, on remitting One Dollar or upwards, post pail, directed to the Publisher, No. 98 Chesnut street 
Philadelphia, shall have a di.scount of one-fifth made them from the retail prices of any works they may send for. This is 
a splendid offer, as the discount made to pui^hasers sending by mail, will pay the postage on the books to any place they 
rtay want them sent by return of mail. 

jB®' All orders thankfully received and filled with despatch, and sent by return of mail, or express, or stage, or in any 
other way the person ordering may direct. Booksellers, News Agents, Pedlars, and all others supplied with any of the above, 
at the lowest rates. Send, by all means, to the Cheap Book. Newspaper, and Magazine Establishment of 

T. B. PETERSON, No. 98 Cliesnut Street, Philadelphia. 
< ^ « » » 

T. B. PETERSON'S Cheap Magazine, Newspaper and Periodical Establishment, is at 

No. 98 CHESNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, 

Where he continues to supply all orders from country agents and other persons, for Magazines in advance of all others, and 
at publisher's prices. Also, a large and extensive assortment of all the Magazines, Newspapers, and Cheap Publications of 
tte dav. at the lowest cash prices. He respectfully invites country merc}Mmts, agents, the trade, strangers in the city, and 
the public generally, to call and examine his extensive collection of publiij^ns, where they will be sure to find all the latest 
tvorl-^ published in this country or elsewhere. mS^ 

T. B. Peterson is also agent for, and receives subscriptions for the.4(fnowing Monthly Magazines and Weekly Newspapers, 
which will be served regularly to subscribers in any part of the pjty or districts, or mailed to subscribers to any place. 

Graham's ?Iagazine, $3 00 per annum. 

Peterson's Ladies' National Magazine, 2 00 " 

Godey's Lady's Book, 3 00 « 

Sartain's Union Magazine, 3 00 " 

Knickerbocker, 5 00 " 

Democratic Review, 3 00 " 

Littell's Living Age, weekly, 6 00 " 

Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, 5 00 " 



Eclectic Magazine, 6 00 per annum. 

Ladies' Garland, 1 00 " 

New York Whig Review, 5 00 " 

New York Police Gazette, 2 00 '« 

The Saturday Evening Post, 2 00 " 

M'Mackin's Model American Courier, 2 00 •' 

The Mammoth Saturday Gazette, 2 00 « 

The Dollar Newspaper, 1 00 " 

Anyper.son on subscribing to any of the above three dollar or higher priced Magazines or Reviews, shall receive one dollar's 
worth of any of the above advertised Books gratis, as a premium. The persons subscribing to select out of the whole list 
•which ones they would rather have. - Any two of the Three Dollar Magazines will be sent one year for Five Dollars. 

JS^ Agents, Pedlers, Canvassers, Booksellers, News Agents, &c., throughout the country, wh o wish to make money on a 



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